Electric vehicle heavyweight BYD to build car parts factory in Vietnam

Vietnam has proved its rising status as a manufacturing base for BYD, dubbed China’s Tesla, with the Chinese giant planning to build a car parts plant in the country for supply chain diversification.

The move, which appears atop of the fact many global electronics makers are accelerating their buildup in Vietnam, will help BYD deepen its supply chain in Southeast Asia as part of a global expansion, Reuters reported Friday.

The news service cited three people as sources for the information, and one of them said the new investment in northern Vietnam would exceed $250 million.

BYD’s presence in Vietnam currently includes an electronics unit that makes solar panels. BYD Electronics (Vietnam) Company Ltd in the northern province of Phu Tho is also a supplier for Apple.

BYD, financially backed by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, makes both plug-in hybrids and all-electric vehicles. The company said last September it would build a factory in Thailand with an annual designed capacity of 150,000 cars from 2024. The facility will be the Chinese giant’s first EV production plant in Southeast Asia.

Thailand aims to ramp up local EV output to reach at least 30% of total car production by 2030. Vietnam is also seeking to promote domestic EV production and usage, with Vietnamese EV maker VinFast pursuing its global expansion, including overseas markets in the U.S., Canada, and Europe.

VinFast expects to inaugurate its U.S. complex of EV and battery production in North Carolina in 2024 with $2 billion in initial investment. The carmaker's current operational EV production complex is located in Hai Phong city, northern Vietnam.

Northern Vietnam is also where China's BOE Technology Group Co., one of the world's largest manufacturers of displays, plans to build two new factories, with total investment likely to reach $400 million.

BOE is a supplier of Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics, and both tech giants manufacture products in Vietnam.